Triple Check Charge

[Redcoat3340]

Just want to triple check a charge I'm using:

Shooting a "Turked" Gew 88 Commission rifle with

175 gr. cast round nose/gas checked over 18 grs. of Alliant 2400.

My Lyman cast bullet manual doesn't list 2400 but I checked in a bunch of places and it seems a safe load. I shot Remington 170 gr. commercial as well as a bunch of 175 cast over 16 gr. of 2400 I made; no problems. Thought I'd take it up a bit and see what the target looks like.

I'm still a bit of a novice at this, so I figured, "what could it hurt to triple check the load with the folks who know?"

thanks in advance.

[JeffinNZ]

18gr is a fine load to use. Will give you 17-1800fps.

[MtGun44]

16 g 2400 in "any of the big milsurp bottlenecked cartridges of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries" is a very standard load and safe with essentially any cast boolit.

So you are way in the good range. Jeff is dead on with the typical velocity
that these produce.

They also usually are very accurate and pleasant to shoot.

Bill

[Redcoat3340]

Thanks, Jeff and MtGun44.

I gotta say I have a soft spot in my heart for NZ. I was in Wellington and Aukland in the late 60's as officer in the merchant navy and I fell in love, both with the country and the girls...especially the girls.

Friendliest people I ever met. I only had a problem with metric concersion. Drank what I thought was "just" a pint of brandy (on top of a lot of beer). Took me a while to realize your "pint" is a lot more than my pint...which explained the hangover. Actually, it took me a while to get over the hangover enough so I could read a conversion chart.

It's the one place I've always wanted to go back to....and I was green with envy when my son spent three weeks on the South Island with a bunch of his mates and a motor home and dirt bike after he did a semester at Bond University in Oz.

[GrizzLeeBear]

I've tested 16 - 21 grains of 2400 in the 8mm with that boolit. Accuracy improved as I went up from 16 to 19 grains and then groups started to open up at 20 and 21 grains. Also, had sooty necks at 16 and 17 grains due to the lower pressure. That went away at 18 and 19 grains. The 18 to 19 grain loads also had enough velocity to allow using the sights set on 200 or 300 to hit at point of aim at 100 yards. I consider 18 - 19 grains of 2400 to be the "sweet spot" in the 8mm.

[aspangler]

My Mauser likes 24.9 gr. 2400 under the lyman boolit. 1.5 inch groups at 100 yds. and chrono says 2030.